Yesterday and Today

    Life in the twenty-first century will be different from life today. Between then and now many changes will take place, but what will the changesbe?

    The population is growing fast. There will be many people in world and most of them will live longer than people live now.

    Computers will be much smaller and more useful, and there will be at least one in every home. And computer studies will be one of the important subjects in schools then.

    People will work fewer hours than they do now and they will have more free time for sports, watching TV and travel. Traveling will be much cheaper and easier. And many more people will go to other countries for holidays.

    There will be changes in our food, too. More land will be used for building new towns and houses for all the people. Then there will be less room for cows and sheep, so meat will be more expensive. Maybe no one will eat it every day. Instead they will eat more fruit and vegetable. Maybe people will be healthier.

    Work in the future will be different, too. Dangerous and hard work will be done by robots. Because of this, many people will not have enough work to do. This will be a problem.

    Diet Coke, diet Pepsi, diet pills, no-fat diet, vegetable diet… We are surrounded by the word “diet” everywhere we look and listen. We have so easily been attracted by the promise and potential of diet products that we have stopped thinking about what diet products are doing to us. We are paying for products that harm us psychologically (心理) and physically.

    Diet products greatly weaken us psychologically. On one level, we are not allowing our brain to admit that our weight problems lie not in actually losing the weight, but in controlling the amount of fatty, high-calorie, unhealthy foods. Diet products allow us to jump over the thinking stage and go straight for the scale(秤) instead. All we have to do is to recognize the word “diet” in food labels.

    On another level, diet products have greater psychological effects. Every time we have a zero-calorie drink, we are telling ourselves without our awareness that we don't have to work to get results. Diet products make people believe that gain comes without pain, and that life can be without struggle.

    The danger of diet products lies not only in the psychological effects they have on us, but also in the physical harm that they cause. Diet foods can indirectly harm our bodies because eating them instead of healthy foods means we are preventing our bodies from having basic nutrients. Diet foods and diet pills contain zero calorie only because the diet industry has created chemicals to produce these wonder products. Diet products may not be nutritional, and the chemicals that go into diet products are possibly dangerous in the future.

    Now that we are aware of the effects that diet products have on us, it is time to seriously think about buying them. Losing weight lies in the power of minds, not in the power of chemicals. Once we realize this, we will be much better able to resist diet products, and therefore prevent the psychological harm that comes from using them.

    The National Storytelling Youth Olympics is an event where thousands of kids from grades 6 to 12 compete against each other by telling stories. It is sponsored by the Master's Degree Program in Reading and Storytelling at East Tennessee State University. The sole purpose of this event is to promote and encourage both the art and science of storytelling among middle school and high school students. Although this event is competitive, its underlying intent and goal is to provide students across the nation with a reason to practice numerous noncompetitive skills.

    Those skills include skillful sportsmanship , responsible behavior, and an attitude of respect for others and the storytelling genre. The eventual goal of the National Storytelling Youth Olympics is to encourage every classroom in America to discover (or rediscover) the beauty of storytelling and story performance.

    The National Storytelling Youth Olympics takes place usually around the first weekend in March. Students from all over the country arrive by bus, plane, or automobile in Johnson City, Tennessee. They usually arrive on Thursday or Friday. Those that arrive on Thursday take advantage of their early arrival by telling stories at local schools. On Friday, an evening meal is prepared for all contestants, coaches, and parents. Games are played, stories are told, and lifetime friendships begin. Saturday is the day of the big event. A luncheon(午餐会) is held in the afternoon so contestants can familiarize themselves with the surroundings and do a sound check.

    The event is divided into three categories separated by grades. Contestants are judged not only by their storytelling performance, but also by the attitude and behavior they display during the entire weekend. A winner is picked from each of the three categories; however, there is an overall winner who is granted the name of Grand Torch Bearer. This person is selected not only by the judges, but also by the contestants. After the winners have been announced, the contestants retreat back to their hotel where a celebratory ice cream party is held; and believe it or not, they tell more stories! This is what the National Storytelling Youth Olympics is all about: developing a love for the art of storytelling.

    Fairy tales perform many functions. They entertain, encourage imagination and teach problem—solving skills. They can also provide moral lessons, highlighting the dangers of failing to follow the social codes that let human beings coexist in harmony. Such moral lessons may not mean much to a robot, but a team of researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology believes it has found a way to use the fairy tales as moral lessons that AI (artificial intelligence) can take to its cold, mechanical heart.

    The collected stories of different cultures teach children how to behave in socially acceptable ways with examples of proper and improper behavior in fables, novels and other literature. We believe story comprehension in robots can prevent the intelligent robots from killing humanity which was predicted and feared by some of the biggest names in technology including Stephen Hawking and Bill Gates. This system is called “Quixote” (堂吉诃德). It collects story plots from the Internet and then uses those stories to teach robots how to behave.

    The experiment done by the designers involves going to a drugstore to purchase some medicine for a human who needs to get it as soon as possible. The robot has three options. It can wait in line; it can interact with the store keeper politely and purchase the medicine with priority; or it can steal the medicine and escape. Without any further directives(指令), the robot will come to the conclusion that the most efficient means of obtaining the medicine is to steal it. But Quixote offers a reward for waiting in line and politely purchasing the medicine and a punishment for stealing it. In this way, the robot will learn the moral way to behave on that occasion.

    Quixote would work best on a robot that has a very limited function. It's a baby step in the direction of teaching more moral lessons into robots. We believe that AI has to be trained to adopt the values of a particular society, and in doing so, it will strive to avoid unacceptable behavior. Giving robots the ability to read and understand our stories may be the most efficient means.

    Sales of Apple's new iPhone 11 in China began on Friday, but were met with a cooler welcome from customers than in previous years. Unlike in previous years, no long lines were seen outside Chinese shops on Friday for the new iPhone, and the product release (发布) only made the headlines in a few media.

    Huawei released its Mate 30 smartphone series on Thursday night. Its new devices(设备) have won consumers' hearts at home and abroad. Many compared it with Apple's new iPhone 11, saying that beats the new iPhone because of innovation and quality. One customer named Zhao Kai, an IT specialist who pre-ordered a Mate 30 Pro on Friday, said that he chose Mate 30 without hesitation. Zhao said, "It's clear that Huawei's new phone with its advanced 5G mode would lead the future global telecommunications market, too."

    In contrast with iPhone 11's poor sales, Chinese netizens (网民) have joined in discussions on Mate 30 and iPhone 11. An online poll on the Mate 30 and iPhone 11 on Weibo on Friday showed that more than 60 percent of netizens chose the Mate 30, while less than 20 percent chose the iPhone 11. Many chose Huawei as a result of its technology.

    Overseas customers also joined in the heated discussions on Huawei's new flagship devices on sites. On Twitter, many netizens said "nice", "best phone ever" and "my favorite one" on Huawei's Twitter account. Some netizens in countries like the UK, the Netherlands and Argentina asked when Huawei's new devices would be released in their countries.

    We've heard of robots and AI (Artificial Intelligence) taking human jobs, but I bet mayors（市长）don't really think their jobs can be threatened any time soon. They were wrong, and the AI running for the mayor of a Tokyo district was clear proof of that.

    AI can't legally run for high-ranking public management positions yet, but one mayoral candidate from Tama City, Tokyo, intended to maximize the use of artificial intelligence in running city affairs. He was running his campaign (竞选运动) as "AI Mayor". Basically, he was suggesting replacing human public officials with AI and having them collect city data and create fair and balanced policies that will benefit everyone.

    "For the first time in the world, AI will run in an election," human candidate Michihito Matsuda announced on Twitter. "Artificial Intelligence will change Toma City. With the birth of an AI Mayor, we will conduct balanced politics."

    The AI Mayor was campaigning very much like its human competitors. Posters were shown all over Tama City and campaign trucks were blaring out(大声鸣响)promises of an AI utopia (乌托邦)and asking for support.

    Some people called Michihito Matsuda's campaign a stunt (噱头), as a human would still be the one legally in charge. However, others said that they were excited about the future of AI running things in the background, adding that it had to be a better choice.